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California appeals game law, ESA demands reimbursement

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Sep 6, 2007 5:10 pm PT

Schwarzenegger files appeal to resurrect Yee-penned game-restriction law; game-industry lobby wants state to pay it $320,000 in legal fees.

Arnold Schwarzenegger made millions starring in some of the 1980s' and 1990s' most violent films. Whether it was gunning down unarmed housewives in The Terminator, skewering Martian spies in Total Recall, or taking out an entire armed compound with the contents of a tool shed in Commando, it seemed no act of brutality was beyond the muscular action-movie icon.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

However, this week Schwarzenegger gave the following statement to the Reuters news service: "We have a responsibility to our kids and our communities to protect against the effects of games that depict ultraviolent actions." But instead of a mea culpa for his celluloid résumé, the call to action was against another form of media: games.

"Many studies show the link between playing ultraviolent video games and violent behavior," he said. "We protect our children from buying inappropriate movies and ought to be able to protect them from buying inappropriate video games as well." Schwarzenegger himself has starred in several games, including Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

Schwarzenegger's comments accompanied an appeal his administration submitted to reverse a judge's decision to strike down a California law criminalizing the sale of M-for-Mature games to minors. Penned by California State Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), the law had been suspended under an injunction granted in December 2005, just one month after Schwarzenegger signed it.

While beneficial for California game retailers, the bill's near-two-years in legal limbo didn't come cheap. The Entertainment Software Association, the nation's primary game-industry lobby, is claiming that the State of California owes it over $320,000 in legal fees. The ESA filed a motion seeking the financial recompense with Northern District of California judge Ronald Whyte, the same judge who struck down the law on first-amendment grounds in August.

"From early on, the industry warned Governor Schwarzenegger and Senator Yee that this bill was unconstitutional and would be thrown out by the courts, and that California taxpayers would pay the cost," said ESA president Michael Gallagher in a statement. "California citizens should be outraged at their elected leaders. Hard-earned tax dollars were spent on defending this law that California's state leaders knew was unconstitutional."

575 Comments

  • evanparker2134

    Posted Sep 19, 2007 1:04 am PT

    He has no business injecting himself into this situation, and for that matter in politics as well. I just want to strangle those who voted for him. He was the leading Republican so every Republican HAD to vote for him. I hate the polarization and ignorance in this country. That's how Bush got elected, and that's why we have lost much of our respect. It was damn simple to impeach Governor Gray Davis, why is it impossible to impeach a president who has and is failing us? Isn't that our right?! sjadhjsahdh......... moving to England where the government is scared of the people, not vice versa.

  • playstation_wii

    Posted Sep 16, 2007 1:59 pm PT

    children are the future

  • Gorbichov

    Posted Sep 13, 2007 11:26 am PT

    I don't think that any government really has the right to censor what anyone sees.

    I think that the original Tomb Raider series (1 to 4) would be the perfect example of a game which is violent, yet wouldn't spill into real life.

    I mean, yes that tiger wants to kill you, but you really want to be able to cuddle it. I remember feeling despair every time i shot them one the Great Wall level of TRII.

    Video games aren't violent, life is violent.

  • mastersteve117

    Posted Sep 11, 2007 11:07 pm PT

    thats funny because three years ago i could not buy gta4 because it was rated M and i was only 15

  • Neo1O1

    Posted Sep 11, 2007 10:09 pm PT

    Says the guy that machined-gunned his way to stardom & needless to say, millions of dollars.

  • hothead3

    Posted Sep 11, 2007 7:12 pm PT

    hypocrite

  • ScaryClownMan

    Posted Sep 11, 2007 7:01 pm PT

    I wonder if the he let his kids play any of the terminator games... lol

  • coolcat888

    Posted Sep 11, 2007 6:19 pm PT

    Gotta love Canada! We don't have any crazy game laws up here, but I suppose were overdue for one.

  • Mochito26

    Posted Sep 11, 2007 3:15 pm PT

    ...And with that, I have lost every tiny bit of respect I might've had for the Governator.

  • smzee27

    Posted Sep 11, 2007 3:11 pm PT

    mhrnw

    I can see where you're coming from but I don't think this is just about responsibility. To me it seems that it's just ignorant politicians bullying the game industry in an attempt to gain favor with older people and get more votes.

    Are there as many restrictions on movies and TV? No way.

    If we let them put further restrictions because of M-rated stuff like violence and language, they'll just keep adding more and more restrictions. Why? Because there really won't be much difference in kids' attitudes. Most kids who can afford video games probably already have cable or dish, and it should be obvious that there's must worse stuff on TV. They'll just keep blaming games more and more because the television industry is a lot more important to them no matter what its effects.

  • goth555im666

    Posted Sep 11, 2007 2:45 pm PT

    WTF! there are too many problems already with games. there should be NO restrictions against games. 1. unconstitutional 2. ALL games are educational..ALL OF THEM. in some way the teach u something. Oblivion...really improved my vocabulary. oh, and killing some1 in a game is 100% better than in real life....no consequences and its stress-relieving.

  • Killer_priest03

    Posted Sep 11, 2007 2:06 pm PT

    Hey, that means there'll be less 12 year olds from California playing seriously decent M rated games, whoop-die do! Violent video games affect the young stupid minds that don't pay enough attention at school and are spoiled by their parents.

  • vanhalendlrband

    Posted Sep 11, 2007 2:03 pm PT

    I thought they already had age restrictions. Either way, if they don't do it on movies maybe they should go after movies first, its trying to give bad publicity to games, like only games are violent. THere are plenty more violent episodes of CSI on tv that your kids are watching then video games. So before you go after games because its beginning to outsell movies in dirty buisness tactics go after yourself. Like that'll ever happen tho.

  • mhrnw

    Posted Sep 11, 2007 1:27 pm PT

    Having an age restriction on purchasing mature rated games is incredibly reasonable. I don't think that violent games make normal, rational people violent, but the restriction is for the few people who aren't normal and rational. If a game can make only one person in the whole world go on a shooting spree, then don't you think that something should still be done to stop it. Or is this an acceptable exception that we should just learn to deal with. Parents need to get more involved and if a teenager is mature enough to play a certain game then it shouldn't be a problem for his/her parents to purchase the game for them. I know that kids could always play the game at someone elses house with out their parents approval, but that isn't a good arguement against the age restriction. Kids might be able to watch porn at their friends houses does that mean that kids should be able to buy porn too.

  • 934400

    Posted Sep 11, 2007 1:03 pm PT

    about time they make a law about that

  • buzzard31581

    Posted Sep 11, 2007 10:54 am PT

    I think most people would agree that laws and enforcement of those laws by retailers is not the way to handle this. If parents really want to protect THEIR children then THEY need to get more involved in THEIR childrens lives. Don't just let YOUR children sit in front of a video game for hours on end without knowing what it is they're actually doing in the game. If you don't want YOUR child to play games where they are running around committing crimes, then be sure to supervise their gaming habits and remove those types of games from YOUR own home. Don't allow YOUR children to purchase those types of games without YOUR consent. Take a proactive stance and protect YOUR children. After all, they aren't the RETAILERS children.

    And as for playing violent video games and a link to becoming a violent person, I think it's all bull. I would wager that the majority of the people who play the violent types of games aren't deranged enough to commit the same acts in the real world knowing full well that there are real consequences. If you can't make the distinction between a fictional video game (sometimes based on actual events) and the real world, then you need to be locked up to begin with. Saying that people who play violent video games are violent natured is a very illogical argument. It's considered a generalization. You've seen a few people that it has applied to and then you apply that to a whole group of people.

    It's an invalid argument in that you take details of a small observation and apply them to a general populous. You can go from the general to the paticular, but not the paticular to the general. Say for instance 85% of people who play video games are non-violent. Now take everyone in that group and divide them into two groups. You would still be able to apply the 85% to each half of the group. However, you can't do it the other way. Example: Three people play video games and they are found to have violent behaviour. Everyone who plays video games must have violent behaviour.

    Now tell me, which one sounds like the logical argument?

  • ConCy-DonK

    Posted Sep 11, 2007 8:52 am PT

    I agree Fat_GoldFish, they should spend their time on something more important like ending the discrimination against illegal drug users, the vast majority of which are only harming themselves and not others. Better education is the key.

  • Jokis

    Posted Sep 10, 2007 11:00 pm PT

    What violent games did Nazi Germany play?

  • Jokis

    Posted Sep 10, 2007 11:00 pm PT

    What violent games did Nazi Germany play?

  • quiman12

    Posted Sep 10, 2007 9:50 pm PT

    vat iz zee governator dooingz?
    E iz makingz big foolz ov 'imselv

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